Balearic PAU Music & Dance study guide
Balearic PAU Music & Dance · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Balearic PAU subject Música i Dansa is the university-access examination taken by students in the Balearic Islands who choose the music and dance option within the regional university entrance procedure. It is intended for upper-secondary students who want the subject to count toward their access score for degrees in music, dance, education, humanities, communication or cultural management, and for conservatory or dance-school students who need a university entrance qualification alongside their artistic training. The Balearic PAU Music & Dance study guide has 8 sections and about 2,990 words.
01Music and dance in the Western tradition: periods, styles, genres and works
This domain asks you to place a work, composer or dance in its period and justify the placement with audible style features. Balearic PAU questions rarely ask for bare dates; they give a short description or a known title and expect period, genre and reasoning.
368 words, about 2 min02Musical and choreographic language: rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, form, tempo, dynamics
This domain tests precise vocabulary for describing what you hear and see. Answers must use the correct parameter word - marks are lost when a student writes "fast" instead of Allegro , or "many voices" instead of imitative polyphony .
352 words, about 2 min03Score reading, analysis and identification of musical elements from notation
This domain tests fluent reading: clefs, key signatures, metre, transposition, texture, instrumentation and harmonic function from a printed or described score. Clefs: treble (G2), bass (F4), alto (C3, viola), tenor (C4, cello/bassoon upper range); grand staff; read ledger lines accurately.
396 words, about 2 min04Dance history, styles, genres and key works: Western, Spanish and Balearic traditions
This domain asks you to identify styles, works and artists, and to separate the Western canon from the Spanish and Balearic repertoires that the PAU treats as separate, examinable traditions. Renaissance–Baroque: court dances (basse danse, pavane, galliard); ballet de cour; Louis XIV founded the Académie Royale de Danse (1661) and Beauchamp codified the five positions; Lully collaborated on comédies-ballets.
365 words, about 2 min05Traditional, popular and urban music and dance: Balearic, Spanish and global repertoires
This domain tests repertoire knowledge across three layers - Balearic, Spanish and global popular/urban - and the ability to link a genre to its instruments, rhythm and social function. Cant redoblat and glosa: improvised or semi-improvised sung verses, especially in Mallorca, with glosadors exchanging verses at fairs.
375 words, about 2 min06Music and dance in contemporary society: media, technology, cultural industries and audience
This domain tests how music and dance circulate today: who owns them, how they are distributed, how technology shapes the sound, and how audiences behave. Two copyrights per recording: the composition (publishing) and the master recording.
378 words, about 2 min07Performance practice, interpretation and improvisation (vocal, instrumental, movement)
This domain tests decisions a performer makes: tuning, ornamentation, tempo, instrumentation and improvisation, and the reasoning behind historically informed choices. Pitch: Baroque A ≈ 415 Hz, Classical ≈ 430 Hz, modern A = 440 Hz.
386 words, about 2 min08Aural skills and listening analysis: works, instruments and choreographic features
This domain tests listening under exam conditions: identifying instruments, texture, form, cadences, metre and choreographic features from a short excerpt, and justifying the answer from what is audible. Woodwind: flute (breathy, little attack), oboe (nasal double reed), cor anglais (lower, plaintive), clarinet (hollow, wide dynamics), bassoon (reedy bass).
370 words, about 2 min